Sir John Thomas, president of the Queen's Bench Division, said the court would take the exceptional course of suspending the sentences in this case, but there was little prospect of an offender avoiding a substantial immediate custodial sentence if there was any future similar publication.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve brought contempt proceedings against Liddle and Harkins, who put photos on Twitter and Facebook respectively in February this year, two days after the 20th anniversary of the toddler's murder, which purported to depict Jon Venables and Robert Thompson as adults.

They admitted breaching a 2001 injunction, binding on the whole world, imposed before Venables and Thompson were released.